Kate Humble’s farming dream is nearly a reality

TELEVISION presenter Kate Humble is about to embark on a pioneering venture that aims to encourage more people into producing food.

TELEVISION presenter Kate Humble is about to embark on a pioneering venture that aims to encourage more people into producing food.

Humble and her husband, the Bafta-winning television documentary producer Ludo Graham, plan to establish a commercial farming and tourism venture on a council-owned smallholding a few miles from their home in Monmouthshire.

The initiative means that Monmouthshire County Council is deviating from its policy to sell off its estate of starter farms whenever one becomes vacant.

Instead it is backing an ambitious enterprise it regards as an iconic centre stimulating the farming, food and tourism industries by offering courses in sustainable farming skills, rural crafts and wildlife conservation. The centre will also be a flagship for renewable energy.

Not everyone is happy at the prospect. Farmers in the area have been writing to a local newspaper to complain that the farm is changing hands at below the market price.

Glyn Davies, Monmouthshire county executive officer for the Farmers’ Union of Wales, said his office had also received many complaints from farmers concerned that a hard-to-find starter farm was being sold off for a celebrity’s pipe dream.

“There’s a real lack of opportunity for young people to find a way into farming and the council has been selling off land and buildings despite a waiting list of about 70 prospective tenants,” said Mr Davies.

Last month the council approved a joint venture with Humble and Graham under which it retains a 30% interest in the holding as an investment.

Humble, a presenter of programmes on farming, wildlife and rural affairs such as Lambing Live and Springwatch, and who is also president of the RSPB, has lived with her husband near Tintern for four and a half years. They will pay more than half a million pounds for part-ownership of the 118-acre Meend Farm near Penallt on the banks of the River Wye, and say they will need to spend more on improving the house and outbuildings.

And they have already identified tenants from the council’s 70-strong waiting list for starter farms. The prospective tenants are a couple in their 30s who farm Hereford cattle and Welsh mules on rented land that is detached from their home.

The venture has developed gradually since the previous tenants vacated Meend Farm last February. At first Humble and her husband had only been looking for more land to supplement their four-acre smallholding near Tintern and enable them to develop their interest in keeping sheep.

“We put the word out amongst neighbours and one of them told us about relatives who were retiring after 33 years at Meend Farm, so we went to see them,” said Humble.

“The farm was immaculate, beautifully kept and they had raised their family there. But they knew the council would sell off the farm and the land and house would probably be sold separately. I had never seen two people look so sad at the thought that all that work was going to be broken up. My response was emotional, a bit ridiculous and not remotely professional. I thumped the table and said this should not be allowed to happen.”

She contacted the council and demanded a meeting without success.

“One of the officers admitted later that they thought I was that silly girl off the telly and I would drop the whole thing very quickly,” she said. “For six months we cajoled and bullied and harassed the council and finally got a meeting.”

Humble says over that time the kernel of an idea developed into a venture that “ticked all the boxes” – as well as retaining the farm as a starter farm.

She said: “In coming years there is going to be increasing demand on our farmers and our land to provide food and the background to this county is farming. This will be a business that allows people from all over the country to learn about how good food is produced, and how to do it themselves.

“I know from Lambing Live and that there’s a huge interest in this sort of thing but there’s a knowledge gap between rural and urban people.”

About 15 acres of the farm, together with old farm buildings no longer suitable for conventional farming, will become the new centre, while the rest will continue as a working farm.

Humble said: “When I became president of the RSPB I said there were two things I wanted to do – to bridge that gap and improve access to agricultural education. Here’s a chance to stop talking and do something about it.”

Monmouthshire council’s Cabinet Member for Modernisation, Enterprise and Communications, Councillor Bob Greenland, says: “The venture would attract visitors from all over the UK providing a true taste of Monmouthshire as well as creating jobs and a valuable learning resource for local schools.”

Humble said the enterprise support agency Venture Wales had been a great help in developing their business plan.

The agency’s managing director Phil Cooper described their proposal as a very imaginative use of a traditional farm that promises to become a very successful operation, generating wealth across a wide area.

He said: “The local authority would see returns both directly through the financial success of the venture and also through the national profile it would undoubtedly create for Monmouthshire.”

The county council cabinet decided to back the venture using its powers to sell at less than the independent valuation of £1.1m on the basis of wider social and economic benefits, approving a sale at the valuation of £750,000 obtained by Humble and her husband.

Mr Greenland said the couple were keen to work in ways that heightened the benefits of the centre to the local economy, and discussions were already taking place with local food, tourism and business leaders to ensure the impacts are felt as widely as possible. The venture was not about accommodating or courting celebrity. but a sound business opportunity that uses Humble’s high profile to create a premier rural and tourism destination for Monmouthshire.

Nor was the enterprise necessarily about foregoing or compromising a larger capital receipt. The council would receive a payment of £525,000 and retain a 30% share of the asset.

After 10 years the council would receive its share in the proceeds of an enhanced asset, due to its association with the venture. And should the business fail, the council would be able to cash in its share in a significantly-improved asset.

“The venture should be viewed as an opportunity to support the development of potentially a significant new business opportunity with spin-off benefits for the local economy, while preserving the council’s long-term residual interest,” said Mr Greenland.

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